Ten Seconds of Bravery
by HecateA
Summary: If Remus could just follow her philosophy and have her courage, this next step wouldn't be anywhere this difficult. Oneshot.


**Author's Note: **Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Hogwarts: **Assignment 8, Anatomy & Physiology Task #3, Write about someone taking control

**Warnings: **Slut-shaming

* * *

**Stacked with:** Hogwarts; Shipping Wars; Shadows of Consequence; Cluster of Rainbows

**Individual Challenge(s):** Black Ribbon; Black Ribbon Redux; Gryffindor MC; Hufflepuff MC; Bow Before the Blacks; Seeds; Golden Times; Old Shoes; Trope It Up C (Secret Relationship); Themes & Things A (Truth); Themes & Things B (Joy); Themes & Things E (Dress/Skirt); True Colours; Rian-Russo Inversion; In a Flash; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux

**Representation(s): **Tech

**Bonus Challenge(s): **Queen Bee; Under the Bridge; Second Verse (Middle Name); Chorus (Odd Feathers); Jet Fuel

**Tertiary Bonus Challenge(s):** NA

**Word Count:** 1327

* * *

_**Shipping Wars**_

**Ship (Team): **Nymphadora Tonks/Remus Lupin (Technicolour Moon)

**List (Prompt): **Summer Big List (Handholding)

* * *

**Ten Seconds of Bravery**

It was the fourth meeting in a row that Dora stumbled in late with her hair tousled, her makeup shiny, and her dresses short and plunging.

"Sorry," she said, pulling off the daring high heels she'd been sporting. "Sorry, I—I was undercover again, I'm here now…"

"It's no trouble at all," Dumbledore said with a smile. "Have a seat, Nymphadora. It seems that Remus has saved you one."

Remus lowered his gaze and shuffle the papers and quill before him unnecessarily.

"Thanks," Dora said. She left her shoes by the door and shuffled down the table to grab her seat next to Remus. She offered him a smile that made his stomach twist.

"Could I grab a copy of the agenda?" she asked the room at large.

"You could perhaps also grab something to cover up," Snape chimed in from across the table.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Dora spoke up, tilting her head to the side. "Do you have a problem with the rack that just helped infiltrate and shut down the biggest dragon egg trafficking ring in British history? I could make them smaller if you'd want, bigger too if anyone's interested. I'm very talented."

She looked around the room, challengingly.

"No? Great, then if someone could just get me a copy of the agenda so we could keep this moving, that would be lovely."

"I have one for you," Remus said, sliding one of his papers towards her.

"Thank you," she said, looking it over. She didn't even raise her glance before chiming up again. "Oh, and what I believe you're all trying to say is 'you look lovely, Tonks.' To which I say thank you. Sorry again for my late arrival, can we keep this going?"

Remus smiled down at his paperwork as Dumbledore resumed his report.

She did look very nice.

He only told her so after the meeting, when they were cleaning everyone's cups and the teapot in the kitchen.

"Thank you," she said.

"And you got them?" he asked. "The dragon egg trafficking ring, it's finally busted?"

"Busted," Dora said. At first it seemed that she was keeping her smile to herself, but all of a sudden it seemed to burst and split her face. "Six months of tracking and infiltrating and going to their parties and gathering intel and locating their routes… it's done. Scrimgeour said the case is rock solid and we're going to sail through the courts."

"Dora, that's brilliant!" Remus said. "Dora—congratulations!"

Her smile turned to laughter and she threw her arms around his shoulders. He wrapped his arms around her waist and only backed up long enough to kiss her.

"That's brilliant, you're brilliant," he said pushing a strand of hair back from her face.

"This is the biggest file I've ever closed on my own," Dora said.

"And you came to an Order meeting instead of celebrating?" Remus said.

"I wanted to celebrate with you," she said squeezing his hands. "Come on, let's go out! Let's go grab a drink somewhere, let's…"

She registered the look on his face and he could tell she was recalculating.

"Break into the Black family liquor cabinet and try to find something that's still worth drinking?" she suggested.

"Like you read my mind," he said.

He squeezed her hand and lead her outside the kitchen and across the dark, winding, largely abandoned by now hallways of Grimmauld Place. He only let go of her hand when Snape emerged from one of the rooms, but he let go fast.

"Good evening," he said dryly.

"Evening," Dora said again. She crossed her arms. "Can you go be sour somewhere other than in our way?"

"Your charms remain bottomless, I see," Snape said. "Hence the dress, I suppose."

"You could be wearing a dress twice as slutty and I'd still be farting sunshine in comparison," Dora said.

Snape didn't bother answering and he made himself scarce. Remus couldn't help but grin before he turned back to Dora.

"How do you do that?" Remus asked.

"Do what?" Dora asked, shaking her plum purple curls back over her shoulders. The silver fabric of her dress contrasted nicely with her hair, and she'd picked eyeshadow that made her eye colour pop.

"Do… do things like that," Remus said. "Shut people down, send people packing, put them in their place… I mean, you're an Auror, you're plenty strong, but… but I admire that about you."

"It's not as difficult as you think," Dora said.

"Give yourself credit," Remus said, outstretching his hand to touch her arm. She pulled away.

"Now that we're alone again, really?" Dora asked. She rubbed her arm where he'd touched her, as if she was relieving an ache.

"It's so easy for you when we're alone, isn't it? But just when we're alone?"

"Dora?" he asked.

"Ten seconds of bravery at a time," Dora said. She chewed her lip and looked back up towards him. "I do things with ten seconds of bravery at a time because anybody can be brave for ten seconds. Well, I know I can. So I just do that over and over until the thing I have to do is done."

Remus wasn't sure what to say.

Dora chewed her lip and then she sighed.

"Some of the Aurors were actually heading to the Three Broomsticks to celebrate this, since they had to clean up the mess I found," she said. "I think I'll go see if they're still around—if Roberts ended up going, then for sure they are…"

"Dora…" he repeated.

"I've put my ten seconds in," Dora said with a shrug. "Alone, when I'm with you, and in front of the world... I don't know how much more I can put in on my own. So I'm going to go now."

* * *

Dora didn't get to the meeting late, but she came in with her hair pinned in a respectable chignon, wearing a grey sweater and a pencil skirt. She looked far too serious and bland and… well, proper.

"Well, well, well. Look who's not only on time, but early. No dragon egg drama tonight?" Sirius asked, swinging into the dining room where they held their meetings. He collapsed on the chair next to Tonks, sandwiching her in her usual spot between him and Remus.

"No," she said. "No, just… drop it, it's over."

"Oh, so you look like this because you've been to court?" Bill Weasley asked from across the table.

"Yes and they threw out the case because a certain Lucius Malfoy has trade relations with one of the guys I brought in," Dora said. She clamped down on her lower lip. "So let's… let's not talk about this anymore."

She leaned back into her chair and stared at the ceiling.

The handful of Order members already in the room didn't seem to know what to say or do. Even Molly paused in her tea-pouring and looked at Dora sadly.

Remus looked at her for five seconds. That was over half of his ten seconds of bravery.

He used the last five to take her hand that had been resting on the table.

Dora's eyes shot open and she turned to look at Remus, shock in her eyes and lips slightly parted.

"I'm sorry," he said.

She nodded. Then she took a long, deep, shaky breath. He squeezed his fingers around hers.

"I did everything right," she told him.

"You did," he promised. "You absolutely did. Come here…"

She scooted her chair towards him and burrowed against his chest. He closed his arms around her and rested his chin on the top of her head. She was so warm and familiar in his arms and she smelled so much like her usual blend of pears and vanilla that he managed to ignore all the looks that were coming at them from around the room.

"It's been ten seconds," Dora whispered to him.

"I can give you more than that," Remus whispered back, holding her closer.


End file.
